Color has become increasingly important in marketing goods. Color may be part of a trademark, service mark or in some way be associated with the product itself. Multinational companies which market their products throughout the world in countries having different languages have become to rely on their marks which include color to identify their products or services as coming from the same source although that source may not be expressly identified by name. Customers have become to expect that the identification of the products will be the same. Coca Cola is not only famous for its "Coke" trademark, but people have come to expect that the when the color red is used with the "Coke" name, it will be a characteristic red. The same is true of the gold color associated with the gold or yellow used in the arches and the printed arches on McDonalds structures and packages. More, recently Apple Computer Company is using color on the housings of its computers and wants all of its computers of a particular style to look precisely alike, including the color of the computer.
Companies which use color to identify their goods and services, and particularly large companies which have their marketing materials and/or products made by a plurality of vendors, have an acute problem in not only controlling the quality of their products, but also have a problem in controlling the color used in association with their marks which identify their goods or services. This corporate identification is often one of the most valuable assets of the company.
The problem of color control also should be recognized as more sophisticated than just having a color sample of the desired color and matching the desired color sample with the color being mass produced for the marketing color. Signs for business establishments may be used outside and may be illuminated by daylight or both daylight and fluorescent light. Color will appear different depending upon the type of light used to illuminate the color. Hence, it is important to control a marketing color with a recognition of the type of light with which the marketing color will be illuminated. Further, the marketing color will be produced by diverse vendors. Coca Cola may have its packaging and signs produced world wide. Hence, printers in Chicago, Ill., Turkey and China need guidance as to how to produce the same "Coke" red in their respective regions. This is not an intuitive task when there is a recognition of the diverse number of pigments there are to produce a color. As a result, expertise is needed to help the printer or formulator determine substantially the fewest number of commonly available pigments which are required to produce a color which matches a master color standard and advising those who produce the color which commonly available pigments may be used to produce the color.
Heretofore, there has been no or very little systematic means to control a marketing color which is applied to or forms a part of mass produced articles, particularly mass produced printed colors where ink has been applied to a substrate. This lack of control is particularly evident in connection with identifying how the color will visually appear under a plurality of light conditions and determining the fewest number of commonly available pigments which are required to produce a color which matches a master color standard.
It is an object of the invention to provide a method and system for the control of a marketing color on mass produced articles.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method and system for the control of a marketing color where the color is illustrated on mass produced articles by a printing ink which is printed on a substrate.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method and system for the control of a marketing color where the color is part of a mass produced pigmented plastic article.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a method and system for the control and/or audit of a marketing color on mass produced articles where the color will be viewed under a plurality of lighting conditions and where the method and system include a determination of substantially the fewest number of commonly available pigments required to produce a color which matches a master color standard.
It still another object of the invention to provide a method and system for the control and audit of a marketing color on mass produced articles where the control and/or audit of the color is done more than once or a number of times over a continuing period of time to monitor the production of the marketing color over a period of time.